Sun Country
10-05-2019, 09:00 PM
#1412
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jun 2019
Posts: 84
Originally Posted by Descend Via
Any recommendations for where to stay as a new hire? Planning on making the move to MSP to make my life on rsv somewhat doable.
10-08-2019, 05:19 PM
#1415
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2019
Posts: 251
Originally Posted by Descend Via
Any recommendations for where to stay as a new hire? Planning on making the move to MSP to make my life on rsv somewhat doable.
Originally Posted by Pull and Rotate
10 started yesterday and they want to add 42 by year end. I'm assuming that number includes the 10 from yesterday.
10-08-2019, 07:19 PM
#1416
Line Holder
Joined APC: Feb 2011
Posts: 83
Originally Posted by nibake
There are 8 in the Oct. 7th class. There's going to be another class on the 21st, idk yet how many. I can't remember the exact wording but the message I heard was basically that there are more class openings than there are hired candidates ATM so everything who is qualified can start at the next available class until further notice.
10-09-2019, 06:33 PM
#1417
New Hire
Joined APC: Oct 2019
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by nibake
Anywhere south of 494
There are 8 in the Oct. 7th class. There's going to be another class on the 21st, idk yet how many. I can't remember the exact wording but the message I heard was basically that there are more class openings than there are hired candidates ATM so everything who is qualified can start at the next available class until further notice.
There are 8 in the Oct. 7th class. There's going to be another class on the 21st, idk yet how many. I can't remember the exact wording but the message I heard was basically that there are more class openings than there are hired candidates ATM so everything who is qualified can start at the next available class until further notice.
10-09-2019, 07:23 PM
#1418
Line Holder
Joined APC: Nov 2017
Position: C208 First Officer
Posts: 35
Originally Posted by AbsoluteCeiling
Thanks for the update. Do you know if they are currently conducting or inviting applicants to interview?
Yes, from what I’ve heard they are currently interviewing for one class a month for the foreseeable future. If you’re interested I’d get your app in soon!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
10-10-2019, 02:48 AM
#1419
New Hire
Joined APC: Oct 2019
Posts: 6
[QUOTE=chanse895;2901232]Yes, from what I’ve heard they are currently interviewing for one class a month for the foreseeable future. If you’re interested I’d get your app in soon!
Ok, I have. They are probably backed up from when they ceased hiring/interview over the the summer.
Ok, I have. They are probably backed up from when they ceased hiring/interview over the the summer.
10-18-2019, 01:31 PM
#1420
Line Holder
Joined APC: Sep 2019
Posts: 93
MSP Business Journal article
https://www.bizjournals.com/twinciti...-low-cost.html
Before it was repainted in its sunny orange-and-blue livery, the 8-year-old Boeing 737-800 parked on the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport tarmac was flown by flydubai, a budget airline based in the United Arab Emirates.
Standing in the plane’s tidy, low-frills interior, Sun Country Airlines President and CEO Jude Bricker described it as the “aircraft of the future” for his Twin Cities-based company, which recently consolidated its local employees in a remodeled airport headquarters building. Bricker aims to add about 20 used 737-800s to the Sun Country fleet in roughly five years, increasing the carrier’s total count from 29 planes today to nearly 50.
Bricker outlined a three-pronged strategy to get there. It involves building on its core business — serving budget-conscious Minnesota vacationers with additional routes out of MSP — while adding new seasonal flights from other domestic airports and growing its profitable charter business.
Bricker, a former Allegiant Travel Co. executive, joined Sun Country in 2017, just five months before New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management purchased the airline from Minnesota’s Davis family, which also owns Le Sueur-based countertop manufacturer Cambria.
Sun Country has lowered costs about 25 percent in the past two years, in part by eliminating first class and squeezing more seats onto planes, Bricker said. Capacity on the 737-800s is set to increase again to 186 seats from 183 in the coming months.
At the same time, Sun Country has raised its rock-bottom profit margins into the low teens, Bricker said. Average ticket fares before fees and taxes have come down $35 since 2017 to about $110, but bookings are up 50 percent, he said, putting Sun Country on track to carry 4 million passengers this year.
Chief Marketing Officer Brian Davis said the company’s position is strong enough today that if it had 20 more planes it would know what to do with them.
“We are in the good fortune of being in a position that we can be opportunistic,” he said. It doesn’t need to scale up and can bide its time if the market for used planes tightens, Davis continued, but when a good deal comes around, Sun Country is ready to act.
When it happens, the majority of those new aircraft purchases are likely to go toward serving new markets out of MSP. Sun Country flies nearly 88 routes to 53 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Its Minnesota customers buy tickets to warm weather vacation spots in the winter, but in the summer they’re seeking out low-cost flights to visit relatives in other parts of the country.
“In the summer, there’s lots of places they want to fly that we don’t go to. We want to fix that,” Bricker said.
The airline also is expanding its local customer base through a partnership with Los Angeles-based Landline, a bus shuttle service that’s currently running five round trips a day to Mankato and four to Duluth from MSP. Beginning Oct. 24, Sun Country customers can buy one ticket for a bus-to-plane trip originating in either city that includes the bus ride and flight.
Outside of Minnesota, Sun Country is seeking opportunities on what Bricker called “seasonally underserved” routes, adding point-to-point domestic flights during peak travel times. Sun Country has had the most success in other Midwestern markets where customers are familiar with the brand, he said.
Flights chartered by college football teams, casinos and the Department of Defense are another significant chunk of Sun Country’s business — and another area of potential growth. It also helps fill in gaps in the airline’s schedule, like the fall season when Minnesotans are less likely to go on vacation.
Bicker said collegiate charters account for about 25 percent of the flying Sun Country does while providing closer to 30 percent of the company’s revenue. About 21 schools “call us every year,” he said. “It’s a bespoke product. If a coach likes a certain food [on the plane], they get that food.”
By Dylan Thomas – Staff reporter, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
Oct 17, 2019, 6:14am CDT
Before it was repainted in its sunny orange-and-blue livery, the 8-year-old Boeing 737-800 parked on the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport tarmac was flown by flydubai, a budget airline based in the United Arab Emirates.
Standing in the plane’s tidy, low-frills interior, Sun Country Airlines President and CEO Jude Bricker described it as the “aircraft of the future” for his Twin Cities-based company, which recently consolidated its local employees in a remodeled airport headquarters building. Bricker aims to add about 20 used 737-800s to the Sun Country fleet in roughly five years, increasing the carrier’s total count from 29 planes today to nearly 50.
Bricker outlined a three-pronged strategy to get there. It involves building on its core business — serving budget-conscious Minnesota vacationers with additional routes out of MSP — while adding new seasonal flights from other domestic airports and growing its profitable charter business.
Bricker, a former Allegiant Travel Co. executive, joined Sun Country in 2017, just five months before New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management purchased the airline from Minnesota’s Davis family, which also owns Le Sueur-based countertop manufacturer Cambria.
Sun Country has lowered costs about 25 percent in the past two years, in part by eliminating first class and squeezing more seats onto planes, Bricker said. Capacity on the 737-800s is set to increase again to 186 seats from 183 in the coming months.
At the same time, Sun Country has raised its rock-bottom profit margins into the low teens, Bricker said. Average ticket fares before fees and taxes have come down $35 since 2017 to about $110, but bookings are up 50 percent, he said, putting Sun Country on track to carry 4 million passengers this year.
Chief Marketing Officer Brian Davis said the company’s position is strong enough today that if it had 20 more planes it would know what to do with them.
“We are in the good fortune of being in a position that we can be opportunistic,” he said. It doesn’t need to scale up and can bide its time if the market for used planes tightens, Davis continued, but when a good deal comes around, Sun Country is ready to act.
When it happens, the majority of those new aircraft purchases are likely to go toward serving new markets out of MSP. Sun Country flies nearly 88 routes to 53 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Its Minnesota customers buy tickets to warm weather vacation spots in the winter, but in the summer they’re seeking out low-cost flights to visit relatives in other parts of the country.
“In the summer, there’s lots of places they want to fly that we don’t go to. We want to fix that,” Bricker said.
The airline also is expanding its local customer base through a partnership with Los Angeles-based Landline, a bus shuttle service that’s currently running five round trips a day to Mankato and four to Duluth from MSP. Beginning Oct. 24, Sun Country customers can buy one ticket for a bus-to-plane trip originating in either city that includes the bus ride and flight.
Outside of Minnesota, Sun Country is seeking opportunities on what Bricker called “seasonally underserved” routes, adding point-to-point domestic flights during peak travel times. Sun Country has had the most success in other Midwestern markets where customers are familiar with the brand, he said.
Flights chartered by college football teams, casinos and the Department of Defense are another significant chunk of Sun Country’s business — and another area of potential growth. It also helps fill in gaps in the airline’s schedule, like the fall season when Minnesotans are less likely to go on vacation.
Bicker said collegiate charters account for about 25 percent of the flying Sun Country does while providing closer to 30 percent of the company’s revenue. About 21 schools “call us every year,” he said. “It’s a bespoke product. If a coach likes a certain food [on the plane], they get that food.”
By Dylan Thomas – Staff reporter, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
Oct 17, 2019, 6:14am CDT
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
